3 Million More Epstein Files & The Truth About The Gaza Death Toll

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! It’s great to have a relatively quiet news weekend every once in a while. Today, we’re covering the latest Epstein files tranche, a U.S.-India trade deal, the death toll in Gaza, a mysterious complaint against Tulsi Gabbard, another election loss for Republicans, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX-xAI merger.

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ― Franz Kafka

The Epstein Files Never End

On Friday, the Department of Justice released a tranche of 3 million new documents related to its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The documents were heavily redacted by DOJ lawyers and include a large number of unsubstantiated anonymous tips related to the Epstein case, but a portion of the files appear to show some of the world’s most powerful men engaging in concerning e-mail conversations with the disgraced sex trafficker.

Probably the biggest story related to this document drop is Elon Musk’s alleged relationship with Epstein. The two seem to have exchanged a lot of friendly e-mails over the years, and their messages indicate that Musk made plans to visit Epstein’s private island at least two times – once in 2012 and again in 2013. The tech billionaire even felt comfortable enough to ask Epstein, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” at one point. Despite the documents showing otherwise, Musk told the press that he’d had “very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island.”

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, was also implicated in the latest batch of files. “We are landing in St Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point” Lutnick wrote in an email to Epstein. “Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)?? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?” It appears that their meeting did take place – Epstein replied by directing Lutnick to his private island, and later sent him a message reading, “nice seeing you.” In a comment to the New York Times on Friday, Lutnick said, “I spent zero time with him.”

The documents also show a long correspondence between Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (f.k.a. Prince Andrew, before he was stripped of his royal titles). “We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy,” he suggested to Epstein at one point. A series of pictures released alongside the documents seems to show Prince Andrew crouching over a woman who’s lying on the floor.

Other names implicated in the files include Bill Gates, British billionaire Richard Branson, New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. President Trump’s name also appears in at least 4,500 documents, including a mysterious summary of 12 public tips about Trump and Epstein compiled by the FBI. It’s still unclear why law enforcement agents put the summary together.

Luxury toilet paper you can feel good about?

The Father Of All Trade Deals?

• Last Tuesday, the E.U. and India signed off on “the mother of all deals,” a massive trade deal that would open up trade between the two economies as they both struggle to deal with the uncertainties of trading with Trump’s America. But yesterday, the U.S. and India also completed a new trade deal, reducing barriers between the two countries and easing diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Washington.

• The deal was announced soon after a phone call between President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India will lower its tariff and non-tariff barriers on U.S. imports to zero, while the U.S. will cut its tariffs on Indian goods from 25% to 18%. Trump had also threatened to raise tariffs on India by a further 25% due to the country purchasing Russian oil, but that 25% hike has now been dropped. India has also promised to purchase $500 billion worth of U.S. goods, including oil, energy, technology, and agriculture products.

• According to one trade analyst, the U.S.-India deal is “an answer to those thinking the E.U. is flanking or gaining speed on the U.S. on trade.” Both sides are hoping that the agreement will restore commerce between the two massive economies, as Indian exports to the U.S. have plummeted since Trump’s tariffs took effect.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

• Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli officials have loudly disputed the casualty numbers published by the Gaza Health Ministry, describing the death toll as “Hamas propaganda” and “not accurate.” Last Friday, though, Israel’s military changed its tune – in a briefing with Israeli journalists, an IDF official stated that the death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza is roughly 70,000, validating the health ministry’s claims that the death toll has topped 71,660.

• “What other accusations could turn out to be true?” asked Haaretz, a progressive the Israeli newspaper. “The Israeli public must ask itself what this belated recognition indicates about the army and the government’s credibility regarding Israel’s conduct in Gaza.” Those “other accusations” could include questions about the number of civilian casualties in Gaza – while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that civilians make up just 50% of the death toll in Gaza, Israeli military numbers suggest that civilians might make up between 69% and 83% of the death toll. Gaza Health Ministry numbers also state that about 30% of the dead in Gaza are children.

Additional World News

• Xi Calls for China’s Renminbi to Attain Global Reserve Currency Status (FT)

• Analysis - Europe's $955 billion recovery fund struggles to transform economy (Reuters)

• US is in talks with Cuban leadership, says Trump, after blockade threats (Guardian)

• India's snakebite crisis is killing tens of thousands every year (BBC)

• Rafah Crossing in Gaza Reopens, Another Step for Fragile Cease-Fire (NYT, $)

• Mexico’s president pledges to send aid to Cuba despite US efforts to cut oil access (Guardian)

Sorry, This Complaint Is Classified

• This one’s spicy: yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a U.S. intelligence official has filed an official whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. Apparently, the complaint is so highly classified that the intelligence community’s inspector general has spent eight months figuring out how to deal with it, as sharing the complaint’s contents with Congress could cause “grave damage to national security,” according to one intelligence official.

• Normally, the inspector general is given two weeks to determine if a whistleblower complaint is credible or not – if it’s found credible, they have another week to share it with lawmakers. While the inspector general’s office told the Wall Street Journal that it had found some allegations against Gabbard not credible (it couldn’t determine the credibility of some other claims), the whistleblower’s lawyer Andrew Bakaj says he hasn’t been informed of such a decision by the intelligence watchdog. “From my experience, it is confounding for [Gabbard’s office] to take weeks — let alone eight months — to transmit a disclosure to Congress,” said Bakaj. Meanwhile, the complaint has sat, quite literally locked in a safe, in Gabbard’s office for the better part of a year.

Painting The Town Blue

• In a special election on Saturday, Texas Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a historically Republican state Senate district. His surprise victory over Republican candidate Leigh Wambsganss marks the latest in a nationwide string of wins for Democrats as the GOP struggles to pick up any momentum whatsoever heading into midterm season.

• While Trump easily secured Rehmet’s district with a 17 point lead in 2024, Wambsganss got trounced by Rehmet in this election, losing to his Democratic counterpart by a whopping 14 percentage points. “I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race,” Trump told reporters on Sunday after the crushing defeat. Despite that claim, Trump was definitely “involved in that” – on Friday, he made a post stating that Wambsganss was “a GREAT Candidate and has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” later adding that the Texas Republican was “an incredible supporter” of his MAGA movement.

• Zooming out, things are not looking good for Republicans as midterm elections approach. Recent polls show that Trump’s approval rating is hovering at just 40%, and a majority of U.S. adults don’t approve of his handling of the economy, foreign policy, trade negotiations, and immigration.

Additional USA News

• Speaker Johnson must sell conservatives on funding deal Democrats pushed for — or risk lengthy government shutdown (CNN) 

• Hard Times in the Mississippi Delta as Farmers Consider Letting Crops Rot (NYT, $) 

• House Dem divisions over DHS funding spill out in private call (Axios) 

• Trump favors 250-foot arch that would tower over other monuments (WaPo, $)

• EV manufacturer Xiaomi reportedly eyes Ford collaboration (Semafor)

• New Epstein files reveal he may have trafficked girls to others despite official denials (Guardian)

Join the 5th Military Veteran Startup Conference (MVS) on 2/11-2/12/26. MVS is the largest convening of military veteran startup and venture capital leaders. In total the last 3 conferences brought in over 1,500 founders, future founders, operators, VCs, and LPs.

MVS26 will take place in downtown San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club on February 11-12, 2026 (Wednesday-Thursday). The Military Veteran Startup Conference is the premier event connecting military veteran founders, VCs, institutional LPs, and operators. There is no other forum that convenes this community at scale, and past conferences have driven meaningful dealmaking, partnerships, and hiring.

Thank you to our Sponsors JPMorgan, DLA Piper, Citizens Private Bank, Sightline Ventures, Holland & Knight, Cooley & PenFed Foundation

10% off discount for Daily Pnut readers.

Musk Makes A New Monstrosity

• Yesterday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX acquired xAI, his AI firm. Last December, a secondary share sale valued SpaceX at roughly $800 billion, while a recent funding round put xAI’s value at $230 billion – combined, the two firms are worth about $1.3 trillion. In a statement announcing the merger, Musk said that the new Space-X-AI conglomerate will have a new focus: building AI data centers in space.

• “Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling,” Musk wrote. “The only logical solution therefore is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space.” In a later post, he added, “My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space.”

• The Monday merger followed up on a surprise request that SpaceX made on Friday. To end last week, the rocket company asked the Federal Communication Commission to create a constellation of 1 million satellites in Earth’s orbit, which will establish a massive network of solar-powered data centers hovering above the planet. We wrote about this idea a few weeks ago, but there are a number of problems with space-based data centers which might mean that Musk’s grand plan might not actually take off.

Additional Reads

• Grammys 2026: 10 takeaways from a historic, chaotic night (NPR) 

• Nearly 40% of Stanford undergraduates claim they’re disabled. I’m one of them (The Times) 

• The Wonder Drug That’s Plaguing Sports (NYT, $) 

• We rode in dozens of driverless robotaxis in China. Here's what we saw. (Business Insider)

• Clawdbot, Moltbot, OpenClaw? The Wild Ride of This Viral AI Agent (CNET)

• In the bustle of the city, we need more pockets of serenity (Psyche)

Please consider supporting Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication, and you'll receive our exclusive Sunday edition. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!

Peanut For Your Thoughts

Interesting piece about the state of the U.S. economy — more specifically, why the “numbers” seem to indicate that the economy is doing just fine while normal people are increasingly struggling to make ends meet.

• The Boomcession: Why Americans Hate What Looks Like an Economic Boom

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella